Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1887-01-20
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
CHE SHALL DIVIDE THE SPOIL WITH
THE STRONG"

Portionment, and Many millionaire
Estates WIN Dissolve Into the Posses
sion of the Masses.
BROOKLYN, Jan 9-The opening hymn at
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning begins:
O. could speak the matchless WORTH
o, could sound the glories forth
Which ia my Saviour shinel
DIR. Talnage explained some Of the prophe-
cies before giving out the hymn and then
preached on the subject Distribution OF he
wards. - taking his text from Isaiah liii, IL:
she shall divide the spoil with the strong.
DR.. Talmage spoke as follows:
NV family. who saw it with their own eyes
year before last, tell me that in the Coliseum
at Rome, where prosecutors used to let OUT
the half starved lions TO eat up Christians,
there is now planted the figure of a cross.
And rejoice to know that the upright piece
of wood nailed to transverse piece has be-
come the symbol. not more Of suffering than
OF victory. Il is Of Christ the conqueror that
my text speaks As a kingly warrior, having
subdued an empire, might divide the palaces,
and mansions and cities, and valleys, and
mountains among his officers, so Christ is
going to divide up all the earth and all the
heavens among His people, and you and /
will have to take our share il we are strong
in faith and strong in our Christian loyalty,
for my text declares it: HE shall divide the
spoil with the strong"
The capture Of this round planet for Christ
is not so much of a job as you nightingale,
when the church takes of its coat and rolls
up its sleeves for the work, as it viii There
are 5000, 600 people now in the world,
and there are 450,000O0O Christians Sub
tract the 100000 who are Christians
from the 10000 OOO, 900, and there are II ESQ.,
100000 left TO be Christianized Now divide
the II $50 600 by the 10000, 600 already
Christianized, and it makes only twenty
five people for each Christian TO bring
10 Christ Surely, when tho church gets wide
awake, no Christian will be content TO take to
heaven less than twenty-five Why, l hope
20 take with me at least 10000 know evan
gelist that have already gathered $1,000 each
for the kingdom. There are at least 100000
men in ChriStendom whose one business it is
70 save souls. SO that when I tell you all
that we need TO average is twenty-five souls
reaped for God in a lifetime, all idea OF inn
possibility vanishes from this omnipotent
crusade. l know Of Sabbath school teacher
who has spent her lifetime in teaching the
young, and she has had five different classes
during all these years, and she tells me they
averaged about seven in a class, and they
were all converted. and five times
seven are thirty-ive, as near as J
can calculate. She brought her twenty-five
and had ten 70 spare. My grandmother
brought her whole family into the kingdom
and her grandchildren, and, hope, all her
great-grandchildren, for God remembers a
prayer 70 years old as well as though 1t wer,
a minute; and she took her twenty-five into
the kingdom and had at least 100 to spare
Besides that, the telegraph and telephone
viii, within a few years, put the whole earth
into a compass of ten minutes. Consider
this, and also that omnipOtence, and omnis-
cience, and omnlpresence preside over all the
work of betterment, and you will take this
enterprise OF the worlds redemption out Of
the impOSsibilities into the possibilities, and
then out Of the possibilities into the probabili-
ties, and then out of the probabilities into the
certainties The building OF the Union Pa
cifc railroad from ocean to ocean was a
greater undertaking than the girdling of the
earth with the Gospel, for the one enterprise
depended upon the human arm while the
other depends upon almightiness
Do / really mean all the earth will sur
render to Christi Yes How about the I'M
inviting portlonsl Win Greenland be evan
gelizedl The possibility is that after few
more hundred brave lives are dashed out
among the icebergs, that great refrigerator,
% r~f.s 20 tha
walIuS and the bear, and that the inhabitants
will come down by invitation into tolerable
climates, or those climates may soften, and,
as it has been positively demonstrated that
the Arctic region was once blooming garden
and a fruitful field, those regions may change
climate and again be a blooming garden and
a fruitful field. 1t is proved beyond contro-
versy by German and American scientists,
that the Arctic regions were the first portions
OF this world inhabitable; the world hot be-
yond human endurance; those regions were
of course the first to be cool enough for
human foot and human lung. 1t is posi-
lively proved that that Arctic region was
a TROPICAL climate. Professor Heer Of
Zurich saws the remains Of flowers have been
found in the Arctic, showing it was like
Mexic for climate, and it is found that the
Arctic was the mother region from which
all the flowers descended. Professor Wallace
saws the remains of all styles of animal life
are found in the Arctic, including those
animals that can live only in warm climates.
Now, that Arctic region which had been
demonstrated by flora and fauna and geo
logical argument to have been as full Of
vegetation and life as our Florida, may be
turned back to its original bloom and glory,
or il will be shut up as a museum OF crystals
for curiosity seekers once in a while TO visit.
But Arctic and Antarctic in some shape will
belong TO the Redeemer's realm.
What about other unproductive or re-
pulsive regionsl An the deserts viii be irri-
gated. the waters viii be forced up 70 the
great American desert between here and the
Pacific by machinery now known or yet to
be invented, and, as great Salt Lake City has
no rain and could not raise an apple or
bushel Of wheat in 100 years without arti-
fetal help, but is now through such means
one great garden, so all the unproductive
parts OF all the continents will be
Turned into harvest fields and orchards A
half dozen De LeSseps win furnish the world
with all the canals needed, and Will change
the course Of rivers and open new lakes, and
great Sahara desert viii be cut up into farms
with an astounding yield Of bushels to the
acre. The marsh viii be drained Of its waters
and cured Of its malaria. saw the other
day what was for'many years called the Black
Swamp Of Ohio, its chief crop chills and
fevers. but now, by the tiles put into the
ground to carry of the surplus moisture,
transformed into the richest and healthieSt of
regions. The God who wastes nothing,
think. means that this world, from pole to
pole, has to come TO perfection Of foliage and
fruitage. Fer that reason He keeps us run
ming through space, though so many fires are
blazing down in its timbers and so many
mock terrors have threatened TO dash it to
pieces As soon as the earth is completed